Mechanisms for dispensing antibiotic saturated discs from tubular cartridges are described in U.S. Pats. NO. 3,031,819, 3,032,179, 3,036,703 and 3,115,992 and Canadian Pat. No. 687,149.
Some of these dispensers simultaneously drop a number of discs into a culture dish or into separate compartments of solutions for comparing the effectiveness of the different antibiotics. Such multiple disc dispensers are subject to malfunctions which are significant because the failure to discharge even only one of the array of discs ruins the test. An object of this invention is, therefore, to provide a multiple disc dispenser which is dependable in operation and in which malfunctions may be readily detected and corrected.